2010 Year in Review…The Big Memes and Stories

December 2010

• With the Airtran-Southwest merger and JetBlue jettisoning their JFK route, the Chamber embarks on the Save Low Fares Richmond campaign.
• After a couple of high profile incidents, VCU President Michael Rao is put under the media (and VCU BOD) spotlight.
• Richmond’s Christmas Parade makes international headlines with the Rudolph float incident.
• Brittany Smith’s Ambert Alert leads to a national manhunt that ends in San Francisco.
• The Yeadley Love case picks up with various pre-trial maneuvers.
• Richmond prepares to bid for the international UCI cycling competition.
• The new downtown ice rink is a hit.
• Some museum district residents grumble about VMFA’s proposed electronic sign.
• Never does a town gets as hyped up over 4 inches of snow as Richmond (here and here).
• Richmond media gorges on 2010 retrospective articles.
• RGL takes a vacation.

November 2010

• The Republicans dominate and nearly sweep the Virginia Congressional midterm elections.
• I believe a Kenyan wins the SunTrust Richmond Marathon.
• Brain drain: Marcus Jones, deputy CAO for finance, leaves to take the Norfolk city manager job.
• A MRSA outbreak at Chippenham Hospital’s NICU leads to 10 illnesses and one death.
• City auditors uncover the Parks department paid $37,000 for a desk. Heads will roll.
• Denny Hamlin loses the NASCAR title on the last race of the season to Jimmy freakin Johnson.
• Kids just wanna have fun. Four Loko and Spice bans are introduced.
• During the busiest day of the year, there are no incidents at the Richmond Airport over the TSA naked scanner brouhaha.
• Steven Spielberg scouts Virginia as a possible location for his next movie, a biopic on Abraham Lincoln. Somewhere Daniel Day Lewis is growing a beard in a remote log cabin.
• The infamous Richmond noise ordinances are ruled unconstitutional.

October 2010

• Sexy Santa pictures of Krystal Ball are leaked supercharging the previously sleepy 1st District Congressional race.
• The Virginia Tea Party Convention is held in the Richmond Convention Center attracting popular Conservative speakers from around the country.
• Another monster year for the Richmond Folk Festival.
• Michelle Rhee resigns.
• The UFOs over Richmond story goes national.
• The Carytown Place story heats up with rumors of Whole Foods. Enter Don’t Big Box Carytown.
• A University of Richmond student is arrested as part of the Georgetown University dorm room/meth lab case.
• Violent tornados hit Eastern Henrico and Hanover
• The Unofficial Restaurant Week controversy has foodies atwitter.
• The Daily Show’s Rally to Restore Sanity attracts plenty of Richmonders.

September 2010

• “Hurricane” Earl. Overrated! Overrated!
• The Division I-AA JMU Football team shocks the world by upsetting (eventual ACC champs)Virginia Tech 21 to 16.
• After months of lobbying, the Governor finally outlines his ABC privatization plan.
• The Spiders open the brand new Robins Stadium with an overtime win against Elon.
• Up in DC, there’s the Discovery Channel hostage story.
• Councilman Samuels versus the Anarchists in the Battle for Monroe Park.
• Teresa Lewis is the first woman to be executed in Virginia in nearly a century.
• A crime wave of violence hits many Virginia college campuses.
• Blair Underwood visits his old hometown of Petersburg to promote his NBC show The Event.
• The VMFA announces a major Picasso exhibit in 2011.
• Part of a series of “working class” town halls, President Obama chooses the Southampton Recreation Association as a backdrop.

August 2010

• Richmond nun Sister Denise Mosier is killed by a drunk driver who happened to be an undocumented immigrant, thereby opening up that whole debate.
• A “Very Richmond” weekend featuring the Carytown Watermelon Festival and GWAR-BQ.
• The US military announces the redundancy of the U.S. Joint Forces Command in Suffolk.
• The Justin French saga begins.  A house of cards built with historical tax credits.
• Cuccinelli Stories of the Month: (1) State can regulate abortion clinics (2) Judge sides with UVA on the Mann climate case

July 2010

• SportsQuest is consummated with $4.3 million from Chesterfield County taxpayers.
• Henrico teacher Amanda Brady is a tragic victim of a DUI boat accident (captained by a Richmond Fire Captain Steven Nixon).
• Newly proposed dance ordinance turns Richmond into a modern day Footloose.
• Guns in bars.  The 2nd Amendment and beer.
• The Chester community rallies around the Parker sisters.
• J. Jason Burford has a heated email exchange with Apple CEO Steve Jobs over the iPhone 4’s antenna problems.
• High speed rail discussions heat up with Richmond at the node.
• McDonnell begins his long, slow march towards ABC privatization.
• The Tameka Claiborne murder leads to a citywide manhunt of alleged killer Michael Solomon.
• Terry Sisisky, the radio voice of VCU sports, dies at 58.
• 29-year-old Billy Ennis of Ashland is a random victim of gun crossfire on a heavily used stretch of Belvidere.
• Violent summer storms lead to lightning fires and downed trees.

June 2010

• An 87 year old Louisa woman is beaten and robbed in her own home.  May the perp burn and rot in hell for eternity.
• Stuzzi is the most talked about new restaurant opening in a long time.
• The Powhatan Wal-Mart debate begins.  Doesn’t take an oddsmaker to tell you who’ll win that.
• The beloved White Dog restaurant in the Fan closes up.
• As with any huge municipal building project, everyone has an opinion on the new Richmond Jail.
• Larry Sanders gets drafted #15 by the Milwaukee Bucks.
• Washington Post political blogger David Weigel resigns after his messages are leaked from a supposedly private journalist Listserv.
• Country legend and Sausage king Jimmy Dean passes away at the age of 81.
• On June 25, Richmond hits a record of 102 degrees. SNOmaggedon is long forgotten.
• Retired VCU president Eugene Trani starts a think tank to help guide “Richmond’s Future.”

May 2010

• Kyle Busch wins the Crown Royal Presents The Heath Calhoun 400…again.
• VMFA holds its Grand Re-Opening to rave reviews.
• UVA Women’s Lacrosse player Yeardley Love’s alleged murder by UVA Men’s Lacrosse player George Huguely rocks the UVA campus.  With so many intriguing angles, it becomes a red-hot national story.
• After numerous legal fights with the authorities, Sam Moore finally calls it quits and closes the controversial Velvet strip club.
• Cuccinelli stays in the headlines with the state seal breast lapel pin story.
• Arianna “Peaches” Davis goes missing.  Not a lot of coverage.  Hmm.
• “New Richmond City School computers left in storage”-Gate.
• Chris Brown hosts his comeback concert after-party in Shockoe Bottom.  With several recent shootings in the area, the ENTIRE RPD seems to be present.
• Speaking of club violence, the mayor’s office reacts swiftly by proposing new nightclub ordinances.
• The third annual Broad Appétit. Nom.
• Cuccinelli vs UVA over ex-climate professor’s research.

April 2010

• Kings Dominion debuts the Intimidator 305 roller coaster.  Considers renaming the Scooby Doo coaster after “Junior.”
• Redskins trade for Donovan McNabb.  Soon to become another clearance bin jersey in a long line of.
• The seventh Slaughterama. If you went to the first one, you’re probably too old for this.
• The Tiki Barber affair is all the NY Post gossip rage.
• 25 West Virginia coal miners die in a property owned by Richmond company Massey.
• McDonnell declares April Confederate History Month, and then quickly backtracks.
• After a season without baseball, the Flying Squirrels debut to a packed house by defeating the hated Reading Phillies 3-0.
• Drill, baby, drill.  McDonnell pushes for offshore drilling, and the Obama administration actually agrees…that is until Louisiana.
• 8,000 rioters are arrested and dispersed with tear gas during JMU’s annual Springfest.  The JMU student newspaper The Breeze would get subpoenaed for its photos bringing about a First Amendment legal battle.
• Man vs Food’s Adam Richman challenges Caliente and their stupid wing challenge.
• The tiny Bristol Herald Courier wins a Pulitzer Prize for its series on Southwest Virginia’s natural gas wealth.
• Dorothy Height, ‘the grand lady of the civil-rights movement,’ dies at 98. Thank you.
• Mickie James is fired from the WWE right before a Richmond Raw taping.
• The warm weather in April ushers in a huge spike in citywide violence highlighted by the Shockoe Bottom shootings.
• Chris Brown starts Rehab Tour 2010.  Breezy walks out on a Q-94 interview.
• Hot100 and 103 The River bring new (same) music formats to Richmond upping the competition.
• Northrop Grumman moves its corporate headquarters to Northern Virginia
• 69 potsmokers are arrested at a Widespread Panic show at the National.
• VCU raises tuition by 24 percent.  They would feel the wrath of Uncle Bob in December.

March 2010

• D’Angelo is arrested for soliciting an undercover NYPD officer for sex.  $40 (How Does It Feel).
• The CW green lights the ‘High Society,’ a reality show about Richmonder Dale Mercer and her daughter Tinsley Mortimer.  It lasts one glorious season.
• The state senate makes it easier to create and expand charter schools in Virginia.  Enter Patrick Henry.
• Ken Cuccinelli issues a fatwa ending gay bias protections for colleges.  After a huge local and national outcry, the Governor overrides the opinion by issuing Executive Directive No. 1.
• Richmond social media rock stars attend the Shorty Awards in New York City.  @lewisginter actually wins the Cultural Institution tweeter of the year.
• The James River Film Festival hosts a reunion of tv horror hosts of yore.
• Musical genius Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse takes his own life.
• British VCU student Jonny Dorey mysteriously goes missing creating a media frenzy from both sides of the Atlantic.
• Richmond joins the Google Fiber bandwagon.  In true Silicon Valley fashion, it ends up being a bunch of hyped vaporware.
• A high speed chase in Church Hill leads to the tragic death of innocent bystander Pastor Anthony Taylor. Local police chase procedures are put under the spotlight.
• There are a troubling number of death threats, window smashing incidents, and false alarms targeting both political parties.
• The charter school Patrick Henry goes through growing pains including the exclusion of “founder family” children from enrollment.
• Food story of the year belongs to the elusive Charlottesville (Atlanta?) chef Peter Chang.  Foodies speculate on his every move.

February 2010

• It doesn’t take a Richmond weatherman to know which way the snow falls.  Potholes in my lawn.
• Sportsquest begins its quest of becoming Chesterfield’s version of “Centerstage.”
• The Flying Squirrels unveil mascot “Nutzy” (subliminally rhymes with “new stadium subsidy”).
• 50th anniversary of the The “Richmond 34.” Thank you.
• Sissy Spacek uses her telekinetic powers to convince the General Assembly the need for film incentives.
• Giant Dutch food conglomerate Ahold finalizes its purchase of the Richmond grocery institution Ukrop’s.  The newly branded Martin’s starts off on the wrong foot with the Girl Scout cookie PR disaster.
• McDonnell proposes $2.3 billion worth of cuts from the state budget targeting among other things the Virginia Arts Commission.
• Richmond Good Life launches Foodie Friday. Yeah, you gotta allow me one self-referential bullet point.
• Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, runaway candidate for Richmond Newsmaker of the Year, sows his oats by challenging the Obama administration’s global warning rulings.  Watch Ken Wash, Rinse, Repeat all year.
• Style Weekly fires ace investigative reporter Chris Dovi following an email gaffe with a Norfolk PR firm.
• Legislator Bob Marshall says some pretty un-Christian things.
• Richmond City Council unknowingly passes an unconstitutional noise ordinance.
• Elliot Yamin tweets from the Chile earthquake.

January 2010

• Despite being canceled, a thousand or so revelers flash mobbed Carytown for NYE.
• We called it the The Great Restaurant Reckoning of ‘10.  With leases up, a bunch of restaurants including the seminal 1 North Belmont close shop.
• They paved a slave cemetery and put up a parking lot.  The year begins with Sa’ad El-Amin  filing a lawsuit against VCU.  The year would end with Bob McDonnell buying the lot for historical preservation.
• Teresa Sullivan is named UVA’s first female president.  It’ll be challenging first year for Ms. Sullivan.
• Mr. Kaine leaves and goes to Washington to be with his BFF.  Enter the Bob McDonnell era.  The early buzz is that Bob will challenge the aforementioned BFF in 2012.
• Redskins hire Mike Shanahan.  It all seemed so halcyon back then.
• The disaster in Haiti reverberates internationally and right here in Richmond.
• Prodigal daughter and Bachelor contestant  Rozlyn Papa puts Richmond on the TMZ radar.
• Jersey Shore is going to Richmond, bitch.
• The Morgan Harrington/Metallica concert tragedy dominates the news cycle.  Sadly, no closure to this story, yet.
• SNOMG2. Yeah, we hated snow at this point.
• VCU student Caressa Cameron is crowned Miss America.  Cute girl.
• Locals (Mraz, Songz, Lamb) represent at the Grammys.